Ukraine's humanitarian crisis is "extremely worse" after the break of the Kakhovka dam : said the head of UN Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, as reported by the Guardian.

Seven hundred thousand people, he added, need clean water and the flooding of agricultural land in one of the world's most important "granaries" will cause the reduction of cereal exports, the increase in food prices globally and the reduction the availability of food for millions of people most in need.

According to Kiev, there are at least five dead and 13 missing, a total of 48 localities were flooded, of which 14 are under Russian occupation and 2,412 people were evacuated on the Ukrainian side. But if the water level continues to rise, there are almost 16,000 people at risk of evacuation.

"For hundreds of thousands of people in many towns and villages, access to drinking water is severely hampered," denounced President Volodymyr Zelensky, underlining that the evacuation, where possible, continues.

Allegations overturned by the pro-Russian authorities in the occupied Kherson area, according to which Kiev bombed a camp where evacuees from their area are hosted . Kiev, attacked the pro-Russian governor Vladimir Saldo, intentionally aggravated the flooding by opening a dam upstream to raise the water level.

THE AUDIO – From the crossfire of mutual accusations emerges an audio clip that seems to nail the Russians .

A minute and a half of conversation between two soldiers of Putin's army intercepted by Ukrainian intelligence and posted on Telegram. "The main problem is that the hydroelectric plant cools their nuclear reactor (of the Zaporizhzhia plant)," says a Russian soldier. And the second replies: «No problem. It will explode and it will all be over." The first articulates: «So it was ours. It's not them (Ukrainians), it's ours» . And the other: «Really, it was ours? They said it was the khokhols (derogatory term for Ukrainians, ed) who blew it up». Again the first soldier intervenes: «Our group of saboteurs is there. They wanted to cause fear with this dam. It didn't go according to plan. (The result is) more than they anticipated." And the other: «Yes, well, of course. It will be like Chernobyl, right?”

It is not possible to verify the authenticity of the audio but US spy satellites and the Norwegian Institute of Seismology (Norsar) have detected an explosion of magnitude 1 - 2 on the Richter scale before the collapse. The hypothesis therefore takes shape that the dam, which is located in occupied territory, did not give way due to the damage suffered during the previous bombings but was blown up.

(Unioneonline/D)

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